Traffic control device



June 25, 1968 j DUNNE 3,389,677

TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICE Filed Dec. 16, 1966 I NVEN TOR.

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E 24 BY LIEO J. DUI'V ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,389,677 TRAFFICCONTROL DEVICE Leo J. Dunne, 15368 Lindsay, Detroit, Mich. 48227 FiledDec. 16, 1966, Ser. No. 602,374 6 Claims. (Cl. 116-114) This inventionrelates to a traffic control apparatus, and more particularly to atraffic control apparatus adapted to indicate to the driver of a vehiclethat he is exceeding the speed limit on a straight roadway or adangerous curve, or that he is entering a freeway or the like in an exitlane instead of an entrance lane.

An important problem faced by the traflic and safety departments ofstates, cities and other municipalities is how to reduce the number offatal accidents on the roadways in their respective jurisdictions. Thenumber of vehicles in use on the public highways has increased eachyear, and the number of lives lost in automobile traflic accidents hasalso increased with the resultant additional traflic. Traflic studieshave shown that a great number of traffic deaths are caused by excessivespeed. Many safety devices have been incorporated in automobiles in aneffort to reduce fatal injuries incurred in traflic accidents. However,other than providing speed controls on automobiles there is only onepractical method to reduce the number of traffic deaths caused byexcessive speed and that is to provide a means for controlling thedriving habits of vehicle operators, whereby they will drive theirvehicles within the safe speed limits prescribed by the traffic controlauthorities. Accordingly, in view of the foregoing, it is an importantobject of the invention to provide a novel traflic control apparatuswhich will solve the problem of controlling the operators of vehicles soas to reduce trafiic accidents and deaths caused by excessive speeds.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel trafliccontrol apparatus which will remind operators of vehicles that they areexceeding the posted speed limit, and wherein the reminder is given in apositive manner.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a noveltraffic control apparatus which is simple and compact in construction,economical to manufacture, efficient and indiscriminate in ope-ration,foolproof, substantially maintenance-free, and which will function inall types of weather in the daytime or nighttime.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a noveltrafiic control apparatus which is designed to limit the top speed ofvehicles on public roadways by creating a low barrier across a roadwaythrough the action of a rolling vehicle tire that inflates a flexiblebarrier means which causes the barrier to be formed across a roadway,whereby when a vehicle hits the barrier a jolt is incurred by thevehicle if it is exceeding a set speed limit.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a noveltrafiic control apparatus for indicating excess speed and incorrecttraffic flow of vehicles over a roadway which comprises, a plurality ofclosed, elongated flexible air tubes; said plurality of air tubes beingdisposed parallel to the direction of flow of vehicular traffic over theroadway, and in a side-by-side relationship across the roadway; aplurality of closed, inflatable tubular barrier members disposed at oneend of said plurality of elongated air tubes, at right angles to thelength of the first mentioned air tubes, and in alignment across theroadway; said plurality of tubular barrier members being incommunication with at least one of said elongated air tubes; and, theother end of said plurality of elongated air tubes being disposed towardthe approaching vehicular traffic on a roadway, whereby all trafficpassing over a roadway must pass over the traflic control apparatus, andwhen the tires of a vehicle roll lengthwise over some of "ice theelongated tubes, the air in said last mentioned elongated tubes will beforced forwardly into the tubular barrier members communicating with thelast mentioned elongated tubes and said last named barrier members willbe inflated and provide a momentary barrier across the roadway in thepath of the tires of said vehicle and provide a jolt to the vehicle asit passes thereover.

Other objects, features and advantages of this invention will beapparent from the following detailed description, appended claims, andthe accompanying drawing.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a strip of roadway provided with a trafliccontrol apparatus made in accordance with the principles of thisinvention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary, elevational section view f the roadwayillustrated in FIG. 1, showing an enlarged cross section view of thespeed control apparatus with the front p'heels of a vehicle on the frontend of said apparatus;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary, elevational section view of thetraffic control apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1, taken along the line 33thereof, and looking in the direction of the arrows; and,

FIG. 4 is an enlarged, broken, elevational section view of the trafliccontrol structure illustrated in FIG. 3, taken along the line 4-4thereof, and looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1, the numeral10 generally indicates a roadway which is bounded by the curbs 11 and'12. The numeral 13 indicates the usual painted centerline strip of theroadway. The numeral 14 indicates the roadway lane for traflicproceeding to the left of the roadway, as viewed in FIG. 1, and thenumeral 15 indicates the other roadway lane for traflic proceeding tothe right. The numerals 16 and 17 generally indicate a pair of trafiiccontrol apparatuses made in accordance with the principles of thepresent invention and which are disposed in operative positions acrossthe roadway lanes 14 and 15, respectively.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the traflic'control apparatus of the presentinvention comprises a plurality of closed, elongated, flexible air tubes18 which are made from any suitable material as for example, a flexibleplastic material or a rubber material. The air tubes 18 are illustratedas being circular in cross section, but it will be understood that theymay be of any desired cross section, as for example, square orrectangular. The front ends 19 of the tubes 18 are each closed. As bestseen in FIG. 1, the elongated air tubes 18 are disposed on the roadwayIt) in a direction parallel to the flow of vehicular traffic over theroadway, and in a side-by-side relationship across the roadway 10.

As shown in FIG. 4, the rear end 20 of each of the elongated air tubes18 is connected by any suitable means to an inflatable tubular barriermember 22. The rear end of each tube 18 communicates through an opening21 with the interior 23 of the adjacent inflatable barrier member 22. Asshown in FIG. 1, two of the elongated air tubes 18 communicate with asingle inflatable barrier member 22. It will be understood that thenumber of air tubes 18 communicating with each barrier member 22 can beone or more, as desired. It will also be understood, that the barriermembers 22 are connected together to form a continuous barrier acrossthe roadway lanes, as 14 and 15 in FIG. 1. The barrier members 22 may bemade from any suitable flexible material, as for example, a plasticmaterial, a rubber material, and the like.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, an inflatable reservoir 24 is disposed beneaththe front end of each of the elongated air tubes 18 to relieve airpressure in each of the tubes 18. The reservoirs 24 are illustrated asbeing formed as inflatable sacks. Each reservoir 24 may be made from thesame material used for forming the tubes 18 and the barrier members 22.

As shown in FIG. 4, the reservoirs 24 are preferably disposed in asuitable chamber 25 formed below the sur face of the roadway lane 14 inthe transverse direction.

An individual reservoir 24 is connected to each of the elongated airtubes 18 by an individual tube 26 which is fixed to the reservoir 24 andthe tube 18. The tubes 26 extend through suitable apertures in a coverplate 27 which is disposed under the air tubes 18 and extendstransversely of the roadway lane 14 in a position to enclose thereservoir chamber 25. It will be understood, that the plate 27 is madepreferably from steel, or other suitable material, to provide thenecessary strength to support vehicles passing thereover. The crosssection area of the passage provided by the tube 26 may be of anysuitable size, since this passage does not provide any flow controlfunction, but merely serves to relieve the air pressure in the closedtubes 18.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, each of the tubular barrier members 22 isprovided with an inflatable reservoir 28 disposed therebeneath in asuitable chamber 29 in the roadway 14. Each reservoir 28 is connected bya suitable tube 30 to its respective barrier member 22. Each tube 30passes through a suitable aperture in a plate 31 that forms a cover overthe chamber 29. The plate 31 is made from steel or other suitablematerial of a strength sufficient to support traffic passing thereover.Each tube 30 is provided with a passage therethrough having apredetermined size or flow capacity for controlling the passage of airunder pressure from a barrier member 22 to its reservoir means 28 forrelieving the air pressure in each of the barrier members 22 when air isforced into the same because of a vehicle wheel rolling over thecommunicating elongated air tubes 18. The reservoir means 28 isillustrated as being formed as an inflatable sack which may be made fromthe same material from Which the tubes 18 and the barrier members 22 areformed.

FIG. 1 illustrates the two traffic control apparatuses 16 and 17 formedin offset side-by-side disposition to provide a trafiic control meansfor both of the lanes 14 and 15 at the same point on the roadway 10. Thecorresponding parts of the trafiic control apparatuses 16 and 17 havebeen marked with the same reference numerals since they are identical.The front ends of the air tubes 18a of the two traffic control devices16 and 17 that are disposed on the centerline strip 13 have been movedforwardly to permit the two barrier members 22a to be disposed inalignment with each other. It will be understood, that a single orseparate trafiic control apparatus as 16 or 17 may be employed inpositions other than as shown in FIG. 1.

In operation, the air in the closed system trafiic control apparatuseswould be preferably under a pressure slightly above atmosphericpressure. When a vehicle as illustrated in FIG. 2 rolls onto the frontend of some of the elongated tubes 18, the wheels of the vehicle movingover the tubes 18 squeeze or force the air in these tubes in a forwarddirection into the larger, inflatable barrier members 22. The barriermembers 22 which are in direct line with the moving wheels of thevehicle are inflated to a predetermined size as indicated by the dottedline 32 in FIG. 2. The barrier produced by the inflated barrier members22 exists or is raised momentarily since each barrier member 22 isconnected to a separate reservoir means 28 through a bleed-01f passage30, and the bleed-off action commences when the build-up of air pressurein the barrier member 22 commences. The rate of bleedoff of the airpressure in each barrier member 22 is set according to the speed limitposted on the roadway 10. If the vehicle exceeds the speed limit, thebarrier members 22 do not have a chance, or suificient time to bleedolfinto the reservoirs 28 before the front wheels of the vehicle hits themomentarily created barrier. If the vehicle is moving within the postedspeed limit, the barrier 5 members 22 bleed-off a sufiicient amount ofair into their reservoirs 28 so that the vehicle will roll over thedeflated barrier members 22 without incident.

It will be understood that the length of the air tubes 18, the internaldiameters and air volume capacities would be selected in accordance withthe capacities of the barrier members 22 and the reservoirs 24 and 28,the flow capacity of the passages 30, and the time interval rangerequired for a particular speed range over which the traflic controldevice may be employed. It will also be understood, that the flowcapacity of the passages 30 may be varied to change the speed limitcontrol for each traflic control apparatus without changing the otherphysical limitations of the particular apparatus.

The traffic control apparatuses of the present invention may be used onside streets in residential neighborhoods where many children have beeninjured by drivers operating their vehicles over the safe speed limitsfor such side streets. The traflic control device will provide a senseof relief to the parents of children in the neighborhood where it isused since they know the drivers passing over such streets will be madeaware of their high speed it they travel over the safe speed limit.

The traffic control apparatus of the present invention may also be usedin other locations, as for example, on freeway ramps to signal wrong waytraflic on the ramps, on dangerous curves on freeways, and the like. Awarning sign posted along a roadway announcing the use of the trafficcontrol apparatus of the present invention would be effective in slowingdown traflic violators, since they would be aware that they would hitthe barrier created by the traflic control apparatus if they violate theposted speed limit.

While it will be apparent that the preferred embodiment of the inventionherein disclosed is well calculated to fulfill the objects above stated,it will be appreciated that the invention is susceptible tomodification, variation and change without departing from the properscope or fair meaning of the subjoined claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A traffic control apparatus for indicating excessive speed ofvehicles over a roadway, comprising:

(a) a plurality of closed, elongated, flexible air tubes;

(b) said plurality of air tubes being disposed parallel to the directionof flow of vehicular traflic over said roadway, and in a side-by-siderelationship across said roadway;

(c) a plurality of closed, inflatable post-like tubular barrier membersdisposed at one end of said plurality of elongated air tubes, at rightangles to the length of said tubes, and in alignment transverse of saidroadway;

(d) each of said plurality of tubular barrier members being in fluidcommunication with at least one of said elongated air tubes; and,

(e) the other end of said plurality of elongated air tubes beingdisposed toward the approaching vehicular trafiic on said roadway,whereby the wheels of said vehicular traffic pass lengthwise over someof said elongated tubes causing the air in said tubes to be forcedforwardly into respective tubular barrier members inflating said membersto provide a momentary flexible barrier across said roadway in the pathof said Wheels.

2. A traflic control apparatus as defined in claim 1,

including:

(a) reservoir means in fluid communication with each of said inflatablebarrier members for relieving the air pressure in said barrier members.

3. A traflic control apparatus as defined in claim 1,

including:

(a) reservoir means for each of said inflatable barrier members;

(b) passage means connecting each barrier member to its respectivereservoir means; and,

(c) each passage means being provided with a pre- 3 determined flowcapacity for controlling the passage of air under pressure from abarrier member to its reservoir means.

4. A traffic control apparatus as defined in claim 3,

including:

(a) a reservoir means in fluid communication with each of said pluralityof elongated air tubes at said other end of each air tube.

5. A trafiic control apparatus as defined in claim 4,

wherein:

(a) said elongated air tubes are connected together.

6. A trafiic control apparatus as defined in claim 4,

wherein:

(a) said tubular barrier members are connected together.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,527,107 2/ 1925 Allen 23831,532,633 4/1925 Noble et al. 238--3 1,543,539 6/1925 Wrightson 238-31,649,877 11/1927 Walston 49273 1,660,559 2/1928 Hodgkinson 238-31,671,303 5/1928 McClure 238--3 2,457,512 12/ 1948 Wheeler 94-1 LOUIS I.CAPOZI, Primary Examiner.

1. A TRAFFIC CONTROL APPARATUS FOR INDICATING EXCESSIVE SPEED OFVEHICLES OVER A ROADWAY, COMPRISING: (A) A PLURALITY OF CLOSED,ELONGATED, FLEXIBLE AIR TUBES; (B) SAID PLURALITY OF AIR TUBES BEINGDISPOSED PARALLEL TO THE DIRECTION OF FLOW OF VEHICULAR TRAFFIC OVERSAID ROADWAY, AND IN A SIDE-BY-SIDE RELATIONSHIP ACROSS SAID ROADWAY;(C) A PLURALITY OF CLOSED, INFLATABLE POST-LIKE TUBULAR BARRIER MEMBERSDISPOSED AT ONE END OF SAID PLURALITY OF ELONGATED AIR TUBES, AT RIGHTANGLES TO THE LENGTH OF SAID TUBES, AND IN ALIGNMENT TRANSVERSE OF SAIDROADWAY; (D) EACH OF SAID PLURALITY OF TUBULAR BARRIER MEMBERS BEING INFLUID COMMUNICATION WITH AT LEAST ONE OF SAID ELONGATED AIR TUBES; AND,(E) THE OTHER END OF SAID PLURALITY OF ELONGATED AIR TUBES BEINGDISPOSED TOWARD THE APPROACHING VEHICULAR TRAFFIC ON SAID ROADWAY,WHEREBY THE WHEELS OF SAID VEHICULAR TRAFFIC PASS LENGTHWISE OVER SOMEOF SAID ELONGATED TUBES CAUSING THE AIR IN SAID TUBES TO BE FORCEDFORWARDLY INTO RESPECTIVE TUBULAR BARRIER MEMBERS INFLATING SAID MEMBERSTO PROVIDE A MOMENTARY FLEXIBLE BARRIER ACROSS SAID ROADWAY IN THE PATHOF SAID WHEELS.